Political, religious and sexual behaviors are reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.

Psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa correlated the above behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample. What did he find? Just what I would expect. People who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women.

Findings to be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

The IQ differences are statistically significant, as much as 11 points. The study demonstrates how certain patterns of identifying with particular ideologies develop, and how some people’s behaviors come to be.

Sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected based on evolutionary behaviors of humans in the past. Basically, in order to go against our natural behaviors we would need to have a higher intelligence and are more evolved than those that believe in superstitions (Most commonly associated with Republicans/Christians).

“The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward,” said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. “It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people — people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower — are likely to be the ones to do that.”

Bailey also said that aligning oneself with “unconventional” philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be “ways to communicate to everyone that you’re pretty smart.

In the case of men and sexual exclusivity, it make sense that men whom are now sexually exclusive are more intelligent because in order to be that way, they had to think and get past the natural evolutionary pattern. Early men had many mates in order to spread their seed and ensure survival of their gene pool. Look at the stories of the Bible…many wives and “go forth and populate” the earth.

“Religion, the current theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said. Assuming that, for example, a noise in the distance is a signal of a threat helped early humans to prepare in case of danger.”

“It helps life to be paranoid, and because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of God everywhere,” Kanazawa said.

Have any of you noticed those traits in FOX News opinion personalities? Have we not witnessed it in the recent presidential elections and amount large numbers of Christian Republicans?

Let me refresh your memories: According to the paranoid, President Obama is a socialist, marxist, communist, fascist, terrorist supporter, anti-American, wants to create a death panel to kill grandma…etc. Paranoid as hell, aren’t they? Now, lets go back to the Bush (Christian Republican ) years and notice the fear they preached, as they do now. Fear this, fear that, he is not a citizen. Attacking like animals at every turn and not taking the time to actually think and see things as they really are, in reality.

Check this out:

Adolescents who stated they were atheist had an averaged IQ of 103 compared to adults that stated they were religious had an averaged IQ of 97.

Atheism “allows someone to move forward and speculate on life without any concern for the dogmatic structure of a religion,” Bailey said.

“Historically, anything that’s new and different can be seen as a threat in terms of the religious beliefs; almost all religious systems are about permanence,” he noted.

“Liberals are more likely to be concerned about total strangers; conservatives are likely to be concerned with people they associate with,”

Kanazawa said. “It’s unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers.” he said.

It Appears that Fox News and the majority of Christian Republicans follow this pattern. They hate illegals, hate social services, against health care to help millions but care a lot about their money and things and not giving to anyone that is not part of the “family”.

The study found that young adults who said they were “very conservative” had an average adolescent IQ of 95, whereas those who said they were “very liberal” averaged 106.

It also makes sense that “conservatism” as a worldview of keeping things stable would be a safer approach than venturing toward the unfamiliar, Bailey said.

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44 responses to this post.

Link to the study, coward. Oh wait, you won’t, because the findings aren’t nearly as clear cut as bigots like you want them to be. In fact, experts quite explicitly spell out that the differences aren’t stunning and are no basis for stereotyping – which is exactly what you, being the hate-filled bottom-feeder that you are, did here (and what hate-filled bottom-feeders like you do on a daily basis whether they’ve got a “study” to back them or not).

Suck my dick, you pussy. If you had half a brain, you could find it on your own. Do you know how to google? fucking idiot. maybe if you took some time away from being a hypocrite you’d be able to learn how to be objective and look at the world from views other than your own. get your head out of your ass or your boyfriends ass.

The article is about people that believe in superstitions like gods. You know, things that are not real but people with lower IQs tend to believe the silly stories. I do appreciate your intelligent input to my blog.
peace

fact is that studies have shown non-religious types have higher IQ’s. If you haven’t noticed, no one has been lead to a field to drink kool-aid for evolution. But we can’t say the same for religion. in fact, millions have been killed for the cause of religion and many lead to do the killing. in fact, the christian god himself instructed killing, and slaughtered most all life on earth with his little flood of love.

you may not like it and you may not like that fact that science has shown that those that claim to know what God believes just happened to be using the exact same region of the brain to make those claims as they did when telling what they themselves believes. funny how they imagine it is some god.

the science that gave us evolution is the same science that delivered all the worldly things you use in your life. it wasn’t some kids that when to make believe school and imagined computers and the internet. They didn’t pray it into existence. Just like they don’t pray away world hunger because it can’t be done when there is not god to hear it.

another study indicated that those living in the “red” states happen to be the largest purchases of porn. oh, they are so moral. but lets not forget the church and their history of molesting children and they still are able to collect money from idiots that still support them. wow

Interestingly enough the most insecure people are those who need to justify their own inadequacies by pretending to be smarter than others and then proving it by posting garbage that supports their own predetermined opinion. I’m an atheist but I am so smart that I must be right. All those stupid black people must be wrong. Republicans are even dumberer. I am GOD! I am GOD! Therefore, I don’t exist. Poof, you’re insignificant rants prove your smallness. An ant is a god compared to you.

I understand, it is hard for those that believe in one of the many Gods to then be called on their lies. There is a God, there is a God but I can’t demonstrate my claims to be true, not even remotely, not a shred of evidence to show my god is any more real or any less false than any other God. But hey, god is real, god is real….because I am so awesome and say he is real. I am so significant that I can claim anything, without backing it up and poof, it is true. magic. Fact is, you can’t demonstrate that an Ant isn’t God but you would love to claim an Ant isn’t.

Truth be told, your God could come back to earth as a turd out of my ass but that wouldn’t fit your predetermined opinion…darn. Holy shit, did you notice how easy it is to just make bull shit claims and not back them up. It is extremely easy for me to do this because those that believe in a god don’t backup their claims and like you stated, they just want to believe what they have already determined to be true..based on no evidence. so run along and and learn to live with the fact that you can’t show that your god or any other God is real.

imagine, telling little kids that have yet developed mentally that they better believe in the god that you choose for them and if they don’t, they will be tortured for an eternity of eternities (whatever the fuck that is). i would call that child abuse. but hey, the christian god says “yet all is of God” and thus it would be him that is responsible for all these children being molested. in fact, he would watch it take place and decide to do nothing about it, as it happens again and again. so this would clearly suggest that those whom worship the christian god are also worshiping the king of child molestors. the father, the controller or should we say the clay?

Bill Fowler – You do know the difference between academic-type testing and IQ testing, right? You do understand that an IQ test is not about what is learned in school, but about one’s ability to process information, right? A high school dropout can score a 160 while a college grad can score a 91. IQ isn’t about where you went to school.

IQ can be affected by constant bombardment of misinformation. The brain becomes confused when it it forced to “believe” something that it knows is not correct, especially when reinforced by punishment (ie: eternal damnation).

Religion is the “lead paint on the playpen”, as far a IQ is concerned.

Trying to move away from the hate a little, I’d just like to posit this idea; there’s a difference between being a religious person, a member of some religion and/or cult, and being a spiritual person. Spiritually, in my experience, one can become more in tune with the world and his/her own humanity by real meditation and contemplation and reading from the writings of enlightened people past and present. I think the organized religions tend to always miss this point and default to a mistaken concept of prayer, as a kind of magic incantation that changes things or people. As part of that, there needs to be some being to which the prayer is offered or directed in order to accomplish this wish and so a god is created to fit the bill. It’s probably a more developed consciousness that can see the truth of this, but I have met “Christians” who seemed to be able to understand it right through the jargon of their creeds and so I don’t think we can always know the level to which a persons intellect is working just because he/she does or doesn’t use the language or imagery of some credo. I think there’s a chance that some people that appear to be religious are actually spiritually developed. It’s just that it isn’t very common and also, that the one’s with the really shallow understanding tend to be the loudest and, of course, more militant members of the culture.

i guess the studies are a general study of the type of people that are linked to a lower iq. i mean, come on, you would have to be a little less intelligent to buy some of the stories. When there is absolutely no evidence to demonstrate that ANY of the claimed Gods or their stories are remotely true.

[…] it turns out, the same is apparently true of people espousing fundamentalist religious views: they’re dumber, on average, than people who don’t wallow in faith. The faithful are more likely to be among […]

You’re speaking of agnostics. To us, there is a reasonable assumption there just might be a ‘creation’ aspect to the whole deal, but certainly not anything to do with the mythologies written by men in their supposed ‘holy’ books. For us to understand the big picture is akin to looking at a three-month-old child, in a cradle, staring and smiling at his parents, and we, being adults, expecting him/her to have full knowledge as to how they came to be. I do believe in a ‘purpose’, somewhere, somehow, but saying ten ‘Hail Mary’s’ is mere superstition and can only lead you down the path of ignorance and all you’ll ever do is drag the rest of humanity along with you.

i found it very interesting and do notice the thought process with many others that I work and associate with in family as well. as the studies keep coming in to support the next study, there must be something to it. i know when i discuss politics with my very conservative family it is clear that it is easier for them to believe something because it fits what they want to be true. for example: Obama is a muslim…why? because it gives them a reason to hate him other than for him being black or liberal. it doesn’t matter that no muslim would ever claim to be a christian or that obama clearly has not real muslim ties. it allows them to hate and get others to join them.

i’ve been told by my family that if obama was elected (the first time) that it was the end of america. we would lose our guns and become a socialist society. yet, things didn’t fall apart and in all honesty, i didn’t figure things would be a “good” as they are knowing that we just spent trillions on war and have done everything possible to make the rich richer, the poor poorer and give corporations the ability to poor money into our elections.

I am an independent and i work to vote for what i honestly feel is best for the country, even it if costs me a little more as a taxpayer. so i have voted for both republican presidents and democratic presidents. the right has become so extreme and full of hate, i don’t see myself voting for them until things change. they get the rich out of their pockets and the religious extremists.

Forget it. They despise him because he’s black! The subterfuge will continue until we adamantly decide upon relinquishing the ‘gun culture’. Racism has to stop!…as well!! Primarily…a ‘suthen’ thing? A ‘Constitutional Right’ I’m told? Fuck the Constitution! A document written by men over 250 years ago who could never have imagined life in 2012!

Oh!…what about those Bible guys who decided to create their own special myth around 2500 years ago! Shall we give them the same respect ,as well? The sheeple pay homage to them once a week! Good grief!

War!…. does keep the nitwits, of which we have an excess in this country, gainfully employed. The US military, and it’s employees, are a disgrace. There are no ribbons around my oak tree. US military presence around the world is embarrassing and exists only for the purpose of frightening us as to some “Aaa-Rab” attacking us again. Bullshit!

As a major ‘9/11 Truther’, I’ve pretty much stayed on top of all the theories. The consensus? The attack was orchestrated by Israel. Yup! A puny, though crafty, nation unable to survive without US assistance. Perpetual US harassment of their Arab neighbors only works in their favor. Many of the 9/11 criminal identities are make-believe. Truthers are well aware of that.

True…..you only have to subscribe to every ‘Truther’ link to figure out the real story. Bin Laden, on a few occasions, denied any involvement with 9/11. Would you not think, if involved, he might boast about it? He didn’t. He condemned the act as an immoral event which took the lives of innocent women and children. Will this remain as another ‘grassy knoll’ Kennedy theory?

The Jews orchestrated the Twin Tower event just as they did the assassination of Kennedy! Anyone in disagreement? Please step forward!…..the evidence is irrefutable and I challenge you! Of course……that won’t happen as Jews control the media in this country. How did we get here?

i tend to believe that those that they state were involved were not the true terrorist and i believe it was some kind of inside job but haven’t taken time to research it. the building just came down too perfectly and then everything was cleaned up so fast that there wasn’t time to look through the evidence….how nice.

All one has to do to confirm the study is true is read the comments here. I find it amusing that people of the Christian religion will readily kill or promote killing of people in other countries as they claim they are Christian. If you point out their hypocrisy they will then get angry and attack the messenger.

Lets look at WW1 for a minute. The crazy people in charge did not like the fact those in the trenches were not killing each other so an order was sent out that said if you do not kill them, then we “YOUR LEADERS” will kill you. This order was given to the German soldiers.

Now the US leaders, they aren’t crazy right? Lets look to history.

George Washington gave his soldiers 4 choices.

1) Freeze to death
2) Starve to death
3) Die in battle (if you were lucky you could escape this choice)
4) Be executed

So when we look you either killed other human beings because the rich leaders wanted to keep their wealth, or your life was extinguished.

When children are programmed at a young age to LOVE their COUNTRY and hate other humans, it reveals the truth about what is going on.

Love your country, even if it kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people including children in their own neighborhoods and homes. (Iraq)

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Nice emotional control there.

If our troops torture and kill innocent people, I will not support that.

Every person I have ever met that joined the military scored the highest of anyone ever on the entrance exam. There is no manipulation going on there. This is where I chuckle. You are “smart enough to die without questioning why.”

There is no government of the people. There never was. Those who “rebelled” against the king of England, were criminals. Nothing more. Those who revolted against the rebels were not criminals, but in history are written about as if they are criminals.

The leaders of our country thought it was just fine to rebel against taxes they didn’t want to pay, but once they were in charge decided it was a crime for anyone to lead a revolt against taxes they created.

It was simply a POWER GRAB by the wealthy elite of the time. The “PEOPLE” (Native Americans) who lived here for hundreds if not thousands of years before the rebel elitists showed up had ZERO representation in this so called “government of the people”

I have never met a conservative who would even look at the facts of the situation. They do the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and hollering lalalalala so they do not have to deal with these facts.

FACT: Great men are almost always EVIL MEN.

“I am a devout Christian, watch how many people I can kill”

When George Washington ordered the execution of 6 of his men who wanted food and went to go get some instead of sitting in the camp and starving, it reveals the TRUE nature of that beast. George Washington was an evil elitist protecting his fortune and his family. SCREW the soldiers and the people.

The “I got mine screw you” mentality is alive and well, with the religious right today. You know those people who say the believe in Christ, yet do the opposite of what Christ said to do.

Now lets watch the responses and see who can accept the facts and who refuses to accept the facts of history and instead choose to hold fast to the deception perpetrated against them to keep “THEIR CREATED REALITY” intact.

I also love how the conservative comments all twist the crap out of words to the point where they just look like morons who dont understand english. I’m curious, has a conservative ever stayed on topic? ever? or do they always start ranting about their conspiracy theories they just formed after reading a liberal post?

hmmm… there are a lot of incorrect logical leaps going on here…
if you care to do a bit of googling, you will find that there are in fact peer reviewed scientific studies that show that:

“fundamentlist” religious people (not “all christians” as has been claimed) have IQs approximately 20 points lower than the population average,

atheists are slightly above the average,

and ‘liberal’ (or ‘free-thinking’ may be a better term) religious people have the highest intelligence (approximately 10 points above the average).

the most common interpretation is that:

‘fundies’ are brainwashed and are not smart enough to question the illogical world view presented to them.

atheists are smart enough to recognise that the power hungry religious leadership is twisting the truth to maintain their power.

free-thinkers have recognised that the rationalist sector of society are presenting ideas as facts to their own atheist disciples in order to maintain their power, and that atheism is an illogical position (but an understandable response to organised conservative religion). once they have realised this, they then recognise that belief in a higher power is a sensible alternative, and have the intelligence to deconstruct religion to get to a world view that matches the evidence before them.

True!!….so nice to see u back in the saddle again!….i am permanently anchored in my present situation and look forward to contributing my usual 2 cents on your blog…thought i had lost u there for a while!….peace…

I’m using a friends phone and it doesn’t appear to be working so great. I’ll be back at it on my computer. Starting slow at first only because I’m a bit busy at work. Glad you are around. We an get back at it soon. Take care

I’m slowly getting back into it. i’ve still got a few trips left before i am finally moved into my new home. i hope you are doing well my friend. I may be living near you now, or at least part of the time.

Aargh..I sent you a detailed commentary on your latest post…you got half of it?…I’m sure…..maybe none of it?….I shan’t be succumbing to the internet ghosts!…as you have become a “Truely-valued” internet pal….I can’t imagine cyberspace without you…as I would lose interest….Peace and Love…..Dave